Solar System Billiards
I don't often write about my interest in space exploration. It usually takes a backseat to others more terrestrial concerns. I have, however, put William E. Burrows' This New Ocean : The Story of the First Space Age on my reading list.
So, here's an interesting theory about Mercury, the innermost planet in the solar system that NASA's Messenger will observe:
Mercury's high density, small size, and other aspects of its structure make it possible that it formed elsewhere in the solar system, some say. The idea is driven in large part by what astronomers have seen in other solar systems: Gas-giant planets that orbit so close to their parent star that there is no plausible explanation for how they could have formed there.
Mercury could have formed out near the orbit of Mars, then gotten smacked by another large object. The impact would have knocked off much of Mercury's original surface. And it would have triggered Mercury's migration to its current orbit.
Hmmm...
Pluto is no longer a planet, and now Mercury is an alien body? Is all this conjecture part of a conspiracy to avoid talking about Earth?
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2 comments
8 months and 22 days ago
Yeah, the ramifications of that theory are pretty unsettling! Just how much more active can our solar system be? Maybe all those asteroids are to blame? Anyway, I'm sure plenty of scientists are waiting for a NASA project, and Mercury was never a high priority.
8 months and 22 days ago
This is an interesting idea, however, if Mercury was hit by a larger object, wouldn't they have provided evidence showing something bigger than it smashed into it?
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